The Wolfless Luna's Revenge: Returning With His Secret Twins-Chapter 288

~Samantha~

The shadow on the wall moved when it shouldn’t have.

I froze halfway through examining the prophecy text, watching the darkness in the corner of the tomb’s basement shift.

"Did you see that?" I whispered.

Dominic looked up from the ancient spell book he’d been studying. "See what?"

"The shadow. It just..." I pointed but now the corner looked normal. Just regular darkness from the torches not reaching that far. "Never mind. I’m probably just paranoid."

"Given everything happening, being paranoid is normal." He went back to reading about counter-spells.

But I couldn’t shake the feeling. That sense of being watched. Like something was observing us from places we couldn’t see.

I walked over to the corner and ran my hand along the wall. Cold stone. Nothing unusual.

Except the cold was wrong. Too cold. The kind of cold that came from shadow corruption, not from regular temperature.

"Dominic."

"Feel this wall."

He came over and pressed his palm against the stone. His eyes widened. "That’s not natural cold."

"It’s shadow power." I pulled my hand back. "It’s been here. In this room. Listening to us."

"For how long?" He was already moving, checking other corners, other walls.

"I don’t even want to think about it." The thought made my skin crawl. "If the shadow’s been watching,"

"Then Black Moon knows everything." He finished my sentence, his face going dark. "They know we found the prophecy. They know about the counter-spell. They know we’re planning to bring the twins to the altar."

"Which means they’re prepared for all of it." I pressed my hands against my temples. "And that explains why it’s been so hard to uncover the tomb’s secrets. They’ve been actively working against us this entire time."

"We’ve been planning in front of the enemy and didn’t even know it." Dominic’s jaw was tight. "Every conversation. Every strategy. They heard all of it."

"Not just heard." Silas appeared from behind a bookshelf, his expression grim. "Feel this."

He gestured to another section of wall where the shadow seemed thicker somehow.

I moved closer and my stomach dropped. The cold here was worse. And there was something else, a faint pulsing, like a heartbeat made of darkness.

"It’s not just watching." Silas’s voice was barely above a whisper. "It’s been actively blocking us. Every time we got close to unlocking something important, the shadow interfered. Made the text harder to read. Made the spells fail. This whole time we’ve been fighting uphill and didn’t realize why."

"That’s why the magic circle took so long to activate." I looked at Dominic. "The shadow was trying to stop us from opening it."

"And it almost worked." Killian had moved to stand near the prophecy. "If you two hadn’t combined your blood and power at the exact right moment, we’d still be stuck at the entrance level."

The realization hit me like a lightning bolt. "They don’t want us to know the full prophecy. They don’t want us understanding how to counter their ritual." 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

"Which means whatever’s written here is dangerous to them." Dominic studied the glowing text on the wall. "This prophecy isn’t just predictions. It’s instructions. A roadmap for how to stop them."

"Then we need to memorize every word." I pulled out my phone to take pictures but the camera wouldn’t focus on the text. Just showed blurry light. "Of course. Shadow interference."

"Write it down by hand." Silas pulled out a piece of paper and a charcoal stick from somewhere. "Old-fashioned way. Can’t be corrupted or blocked."

We spent the next twenty minutes copying every line of the prophecy. The twin keys. The sacrifice of true love. The betrayer among us. All of it.

My hand cramped from writing so fast but I didn’t stop until every word was transferred to paper.

"Got it." I folded the paper carefully and tucked it into my jacket. "Now we need to get out of here before the shadow tries something worse than just watching."

"Agreed." Dominic was already gathering the spell books we’d need. "Silas, can you seal this room? Make sure nobody else can access it?"

"Already done." Silas touched a mark on the wall and I saw faint lines of light spread outward. "The seal will hold until either you or Sam come back. Nobody else can enter."

"Good." I moved toward the stairs. "Let’s go."

We climbed back up through the tomb, moving quickly but carefully. Every shadow looked suspicious now. Every dark corner potentially hiding enemy surveillance.

The cold air outside felt like freedom after the oppressive atmosphere of the basement.

"We need to check the manor." I was already texting Reynold as we walked. "Make sure the shadow hasn’t been watching there too."

My phone buzzed with his response almost immediately.

Already checked. Found shadow traces in three rooms. Cleared them out. Also the twins want to talk to you. Something about making wands?

"Oh no." I looked at Dominic. "What are they up to now?"

"With those two? Could be anything." He didn’t sound worried though. Almost amused.

We made it back to the manor faster than I expected, adrenaline making us move quick.

I headed straight for the twins’ room and found them sitting on the floor, surrounded by grass and what looked like small white objects I couldn’t immediately identify.

"Mom!" Diana jumped up. "Look what we made!"

She held up a stick wrapped in fluffy grass with something white wedged into the tip.

I moved closer and my eyes went wide. "Is that a tooth?"

"Our baby teeth!" Devon held up his own stick-wand proudly. "We heard you and Dad talking about the prophecy and the shadow watching and how we need to be stronger for tomorrow. So we made purification wands!"

"You heard us?" I knelt down beside them. "From all the way at the tomb?"

"No, silly." Diana giggled. "We heard you talking to Reynold on the phone just now. About shadow traces and checking rooms. And we remembered Maggie saying wolf tail grass helps purification magic work better. So we collected some from the garden."

"And the teeth?" Dominic asked.

"Maggie also said baby teeth hold pure energy because they come from childhood innocence or something." Devon shrugged. "We had ours saved in a box, so we added them to make the wands stronger."

I picked up Diana’s wand carefully. The construction was actually impressive, grass tightly wound around a straight branch, with her tiny tooth secured at the tip using more grass as binding.

"Show me." I handed it back to her.

Diana held the wand up and closed her eyes. Silver light burst from the tip, spreading outward in a wave that made the entire room feel cleaner. Lighter.

The shadow traces Reynold must have missed dissolved instantly under the purification energy.

"Whoa." Killian, who’d followed us in, looked genuinely impressed. "That’s way more powerful than their usual purification power."

"The wands focus it." Devon demonstrated with his, creating another burst of silver light. "Makes it go farther and last longer. We’ve been practicing all afternoon."

"All afternoon?" I looked at the mess on the floor. Grass clippings everywhere. "How many wands did you make?"

"Six!" Diana pointed to a pile by the window. "Two for us, two for you and Dad, and two backups in case something breaks."

My throat went tight. "You made wands for us too?"

"Of course." Devon’s voice was matter-of-fact. "We’re going to protect you and Dad from the shadow." Diana’s small hand gripped her wand tighter. "Just like Grandma would have done."

I pulled them both into a hug, blinking back tears. "You never cease to amaze me with your smartness. You know that?"

"We know." Devon hugged back. "We get it from you."

A laugh escaped despite everything. "Pretty sure you get it from both parents and your grandmother."

"And we’re going to use it tomorrow." Diana pulled back to look at me seriously. "We heard about the twin keys in the prophecy. That’s us, right? We’re the keys?"

No point lying. They’d already figured it out.

"Yes. The prophecy says you two are the ones who can purify the shadow permanently."

"Then we’ll do it." Devon’s voice was steady. Brave. "We’re not scared."

"We’re a little scared," Diana admitted. "But we’re doing it anyway. Because that’s what brave means, right?"

"Right." I smoothed her hair back. "That’s exactly what brave means."

Dominic crouched beside us. "But you need to promise something. When we get to the altar tomorrow, you listen to every instruction we give you. Immediately. No questions. Understand?"

Both twins nodded solemnly.

"We promise." Devon held out his pinky. "Pinky swear."

Dominic linked his pinky with Devon’s, then Diana’s. "Good. Now show me how these wands work."